It turns out Tom Brady and Rory McIlroy weren’t just having fun when they played a round of golf at Augusta National on Friday.

The World No. 1 golfer told CBS Sports on Wednesday that he actually bumped into the New England Patriots quarterback at the club’s weight room before they played, and Peyton and Eli Manning joined in, too.

Not surprisingly, McIlroy had nothing but praise for the NFL signal-callers.

“Friday morning, I got in the gym about 6,” McIlroy said. “Brady walked in at 6:15, and the Mannings walked in at 6:30. That was my time to leave.”

“I was just surprised (Brady) was in there; the Mannings, too. It’s their offseason. They’re so dedicated and committed to what they do, especially those two guys, Peyton and Tom. They’re both in their mid-30s, and they want to prolong their careers as much as they can.”

As you probably could tell, McIlroy was extremely impressed by the quarterbacks’ work ethic.

“To see them putting so much into it even after 15 successful years as a career, and they’re still doing it — it was great for me to see, it was inspirational in some ways. … It was just nice to be in that little world for a couple of days and experience it,” McIlroy said.

The Golf Channel’s Todd Lewis reported last week that the New England Patriots quarterback would be joining the four-time major winner for a round of golf at Augusta National in the near future. McIlroy confirmed the golf date was indeed happening, posting a picture with the Super Bowl champ to his Facebook page Thursday night.

Those hashtags might go down as some of the greatest humblebrags in social media history.

Myakka Pines is an 18-hole course in Englewood, Fla., that usually doesn’t garner too many headlines. Except when there’s a gargantuan alligator strolling across the green.

Don’t believe your eyes? You’re not alone, as many questioned whether the images were Photo-shopped. Yet Myakka Pines insists they’re legit, claiming that two golfers snapped pictures of the monstrous beast last week as it traversed the No. 7 green, according to WPTV-TV in West Palm Beach.

Huge alligators are nothing new at the Englewood course, either. The Blaze reports the club used to be home to “much larger” gator named “Big George.”

So, yeah. If your ball — or 3-iron — lands in the water, you might want to just leave it there.

The Northern Irish golfer made headlines Friday when he chucked his golf club into the drink after a poor shot at the WGC-Cadillac Championship. After the round, McIlroy admitted he usually doesn’t play with a 3-iron and wasn’t sad to see it go.

Enter the Don.

Upon hearing that McIlroy played Saturday’s round with only 13 clubs, Trump, who owns the Doral golf course that played host to the tournament, sent a scuba diver into the pond to retrieve the ill-fated iron.

Trump’s man got the job done, and the real estate mogul took it upon himself to hand-deliver the club to McIlroy on Sunday, telling the 25-year-old that “13 is an unlucky number.”

McIlroy put the club in his bag but planned to give it back to Trump, who hopes to auction it off to charity or put it in a trophy case at Doral. McIlroy finished the tournament at 1-under, eight strokes behind winner Dustin Johnson, but he still can count Trump as a fan.

“Rory’s a great kid, a great player,” Trump said, via For the Win. “Anything he does is news. It showed a human touch. He’s such a fantastic person.

Lucky spectators at the third round of the World Golf Championships at the newly redesigned Trump National Doral Miami got to see two holes-in-one about 20 minutes apart on the same par-3 hole. Dustin Johnson aced hole No. 4 first, and J.B. Holmes sank a nearly identical shot not long after.

Holmes gets the advantage for his sweet dance moves.

Johnson and Holmes made it look easy, but don’t be fooled. The fourth hole is a tricky, 207-yarder surround by water in front and to the right. The last time anyone nailed a hole-in-one on Doral’s fourth hole at a PGA event was in 1989, per Golf Digest.

Both golfers have cause to celebrate, but Holmes especially does. He currently owns a five-shot lead in the WGC-Cadillac Championship at 11-under thanks to four straight birdies later in the day Saturday. However, Johnson is tied for second with Bubba Watson at 6-under.

If you live in New England, look outside your window. Not exactly ideal golfing conditions, right?

Fortunately, warmer days are right around the corner, and a top-tier golf tournament right here in the Boston area definitely is an event to look forward to this summer.

Thorny Lea Golf Club in Brockton, Mass., will be the site of the WB Mason Championship, which takes place from August 14 to 16. The first annual tournament will be part of the LPGA Symetra Tour and will feature some of the biggest rising stars in golf, including Haley Italia.

“We’re hoping we can turn this into something that will be great,” Leo Meehan, president and CEO of WB Mason, told “NESN Live.”

Check out the video above to learn more about this exciting new tournament.

Golf is a hard game, and Rory McIlroy expressed his frustration with it in the best way possible.

The usually unflappable Northern Irishman already was struggling at the WGC-Cadillac Championship on Friday when his approach shot on the eighth hole splashed directly into a pond. McIlroy wasn’t pleased, so he proceeded to hurl his three iron almost the same distance into the same pond.

Nice toss, Rory.

McIlroy salvaged a bogey on the hole but finished the round with a 70, leaving him eight strokes off the lead at -1 overall.

As you might expect, McIlroy was asked after the round why he decided to sling his valuable club deep into the watery depths. Apparently he wasn’t too fond of that three-iron.

“I just let frustration get the better of me,” he said, via ESPN. “It was heat of the moment, and if it had been any other club, I probably wouldn’t have, but I didn’t need a 3-iron for the rest of the round, so I thought why not.”

Two of sports’ most successful stars will be sharing the same golf course very soon.

New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady will continue his own Super Bowl celebration by playing a round of golf at Augusta National with four-time major winner Rory McIlroy, according to the Golf Channel’s Todd Lewis.

Next week @McIlroyRory will play Augusta National with Tom Brady. A 4-time Super Bowl champ walking the fairways with a 4-time Major champ.

Brady is an avid golfer who grew up playing the game with his father. Their golf outings were actually the inspiration for one of Brady’s recent Ugg commercials. Brady’s 2009 cameo in the HBO show “Entourage” was titled “Fore” and featured the Patriots quarterback playing a round of golf with the show’s main characters.

Brady and head coach Bill Belichick also hit up the celebrity golf circuit from time to time. Last February, both played in the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am.

Filed under: Golf, New England Patriots, Top Stories]]>http://nesn.com/2015/03/tom-brady-rory-mcilroy-to-play-round-at-augusta-national-together/feed/00Tom BradynesnmcoleHannah Davis, Derek Jeter’s Girlfriend, Golfs For First Time, Crushes It (Video)http://nesn.com/2015/02/derek-jeters-girlfriend-hannah-davis-golfs-for-first-time-crushes-it-video/
http://nesn.com/2015/02/derek-jeters-girlfriend-hannah-davis-golfs-for-first-time-crushes-it-video/#commentsThu, 26 Feb 2015 23:05:08 +0000http://nesn.com/?p=448845]]>Apparently Derek Jeter has been teaching his girlfriend a thing or two about how to take a swing.

Sports Illustrated swimsuit model Hannah Davis — who’s been dating the ex-New York Yankees shortstop for almost two years — recently tried her hand at golf, which some would argue can be more difficult than hitting a baseball.

The swing wasn’t pretty (might want to work on that balance, Hannah), but the result was pretty darn impressive.

PEBBLE BEACH, Fla. — Tiger Woods says his golf is not acceptable for the PGA Tour, and he will not return until it is.

Woods shot a career-worst 82 to miss the cut in the Phoenix Open by 12 shots. He was playing poorly in the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines when he withdrew after 11 holes because of tightness in his back.

Woods said Wednesday on his website that the injury is not related to the back surgery he had last spring. He says he is having physical therapy every day and feeling better.

But he says he needs work on his game. He says he wants to play the Honda Classic that starts Feb. 26. But he won’t play if he’s not tournament-ready. Woods says he expects to be playing soon.

SAN DIEGO — In an ominous start to his season, Tiger Woods walked off the course after 11 holes Thursday at the Farmers Insurance Open because of tightness in his lower back that he attributed to a fog delay.

Woods began reaching for his lower back midway through the round on the North Course at Torrey Pines, and his grimace became more pronounced. Billy Horschel picked up the tee for Woods on their 10th hole and took the ball out of the cup for him when Woods made birdie.

Woods hit a safe shot to the middle of the par-3 third green. When it was his turn, he had caddie Joe LaCava pick up his ball marker, and he waited for Horschel and Rickie Fowler to finish before getting into a cart and driving to his car.

In his last six tournaments since returning from back surgery a week before the Masters, Woods has missed the cut three times, withdrawn twice and finished 69th in the British Open, his lowest 72-hole finish in a major.

He had said at his unofficial Hero World Challenge in December and last week in the Phoenix Open, where he had a career-high 82, that he was at full strength.

He blamed this on having to stand around in the cool Pacific air during a fog delay.

Woods warmed up for his 9:20 a.m. tee time and was near the 10th tee when play was suspended because fog rolled in. Fog delayed the start by an hour, and the next round of fog led to a 90-minute stoppage in play.

“I was ready to go,” Woods said. “I had a good warmup session the first time around. Then we stood out here and I got cold, and everything started deactivating again. And it’s frustrating that I just can’t stay activated. That’s just kind of the way it is.”

Asked if it was new pain from the back injury that forced him to withdraw at Firestone in August, Woods said his “glutes are shutting off.”

“Then they don’t activate and then, hence, it goes into my lower back,” he said. “So I tried to activate my glutes as best I could in between, but they never stayed activated.”

Woods was 2-over par through 11 holes and in a tie for 130th when he withdrew.

He will fall to his worst world ranking since before he won his first PGA Tour event as a 20-year-old in 1996, and he most likely will not qualify for a World Golf Championship for only the second time in his career. Woods is not expected to play again until the Honda Classic in three weeks. Doral is the following week. He did not indicate earlier in the week that he would add tournaments to his schedule ahead of the Masters, which is April 9-12.

Woods took four months off to let his back fully heal and to regain his strength. He said at Isleworth in December and at Phoenix last week that his health was no longer an issue. But it sent him home early from Torrey Pines, and sent him to a muddied future.

The Australian golfer is an unknown in the golfing world, but that might change after he recorded one of the most improbable hole-in-ones you’ll ever see.

Playing at the Oates Vic Open on the Australasian Tour at Thirteenth Beach Golf Links in Australia, Green opted to hit driver on the par-4 15th hole.

It didn’t look it at first, but that turned out to be a great idea. Green’s tee shot went awry, but that’s when his luck really took over. The ball bounced once in the fairway before hopping into the bunker. Then, somehow, it took a bounce out of the bunker and made a beeline for the stick.

And, of course, the ball disappeared for the rare par-4 ace.

“I noticed the tee was up from where we played it last year, I thought it was a good opportunity to get up near the green and contend for birdies during the week,” Green said via PGA.org.

“I thought I would hit a driver and see what happens, I just pushed it a little bit, it was a good shot, but I knew it was going in the bunker so I was completely oblivious to the fact that it had made its way to the hole somehow.”

Filed under: Golf, Top Stories]]>http://nesn.com/2015/02/australian-golfer-records-craziest-hole-in-one-youll-ever-see-video/feed/00Hole in onenesnmcoleTiger Woods Smiling Again With Full Set Of Teeth After Run-In With Camerahttp://nesn.com/2015/01/tiger-woods-smiling-again-with-full-set-of-teeth-after-run-in-with-camera/
http://nesn.com/2015/01/tiger-woods-smiling-again-with-full-set-of-teeth-after-run-in-with-camera/#commentsWed, 28 Jan 2015 03:32:49 +0000http://nesn.com/?p=439626]]>

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Tiger Woods was all smiles Tuesday — and with a full set of teeth.

Woods gave a play-by-play account of how his front tooth was knocked out in Italy on Jan. 19 while celebrating girlfriend Lindsey Vonn’s record 63rd World Cup victory. He said one tooth was chipped and the other was cracked. Both were replaced before he arrived to start his season at the Phoenix Open.

Woods said he wore a skeleton-patterned scarf over his face to avoid being recognized, making a crack about how difficult that can be for a man of black heritage at a World Cup ski race in Italy.

“Not a lot of brown dudes at ski races, OK?” he said with a laugh, as cameras clicked at his smile.

Woods said when the race was completed, the podium presentation was moved up on a hill for the photographers. He went to the top of the hill, behind the cameras.

“All the camera guys are below me on their knees or moving all around, trying to get a picture because she’s hugging people, saying congratulations to the other racers as they are coming down,” Woods said. “Some already finished, some are there already in the changing area. Dude with a video camera on his shoulder right in front me, kneeling, stood up and turned and caught me square on the mouth.”

Woods said he tried to keep his mask on “so the blood is not all over the place.” He said the videographer hit the tooth on which he had a root canal, chipping it. He said the other tooth had to be fixed, too, because it had cracks through it.

The photo of Woods missing a tooth became as big a sensation as Vonn’s record victory. There did not appear to be any swelling on Woods’ mouth when a photographer captured the image of his mouth slightly open and the scarf lowered.

Nicola Colli, the secretary general of the race organizing committee, told The Associated Press he was among those who escorted Woods from the tent to a snowmobile for him to leave “and there was no such incident.”

“When he arrived, he asked for more security, and we rounded up police to look after both him and Lindsey,” Colli had said.

Whether anyone believed the story from a week ago was not Woods’ concern.

“Dude, you guys … it’s just the way the media is,” he said. “It is what it is.”

Filed under: Golf, The Associated Press, Top Stories]]>http://nesn.com/2015/01/tiger-woods-smiling-again-with-full-set-of-teeth-after-run-in-with-camera/feed/00PGA: Waste Management Phoenix Open-Practice RoundnesnjhathawayRoger Allenby Insists He Was Robbed, Has ‘No Memory’ Before Waking Up In Parkhttp://nesn.com/2015/01/roger-allenby-insists-he-was-robbed-has-no-memory-before-waking-up-in-park/
http://nesn.com/2015/01/roger-allenby-insists-he-was-robbed-has-no-memory-before-waking-up-in-park/#commentsTue, 27 Jan 2015 21:50:06 +0000http://nesn.com/?p=439506]]>SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — A defiant and at times angry Robert Allenby stood by his story Tuesday that he was robbed and beaten in Honolulu, basing the account on what he remembered and what he was told by a homeless woman who came to his aid.

“There has definitely been a lot of confusion,” Allenby said. “But I think the No. 1 thing that you should all remember is that my story stays exactly the same as the way I told it. I told you what I knew, and I told you what someone told me. That’s the bottom line. I never lied to anyone.”

Honolulu police are investigating the Jan. 16 incident as second-degree robbery. No arrests have been made.

Allenby says he was at Amuse Wine Bar with his caddie and a friend from Australia on the night he missed the cut at the Sony Open. He said surveillance tape shows him leaving the bar with three people he doesn’t recognize, and that his next memory is being in a park. He said a homeless woman told him he had been thrown out of a trunk, which he said caused his injuries.

Allenby posted a photo of his bloodied forehead and a swollen eye to his private Facebook account. He said he was robbed of wallet and phone, though the credit card he used to pay for dinner and wine was still in his front pocket.

In the last week, however, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser quoted the homeless woman, Charade Keane, as saying she never told Allenby she saw him in a trunk and did not how he was injured. The newspaper quoted another homeless man in the park, Chris Khamis, as saying Allenby told him he was depressed and drugged at a strip club and that he passed out and hit his head on a lava rock.

Exactly what happened remains a mystery, even for Allenby. He said Tuesday he has “no memory in my brain” from about 11:06 p.m. to 1:27 a.m. on that date.

“I have been trying and overlooking and going backward and forward, and there is just nothing,” he said. “I can’t tell you how frustrating that is because we all want to know the truth.”

The 43-year-old Australian said headaches subsided a few days ago and he chose to play in the Phoenix Open to try to get his life back on track.

His face looked relatively clean as he spoke to reporters — his injuries drew more attention than any of his 22 wins around the world — and the crowd was even larger because the podium was in front of the caddie hospitality tent.

Allenby saved his anger for the media, whom he sarcastically claimed to be “amazing experts at investigations.”

“I was a victim, and all of a sudden you’re putting all the blame on me,” Allenby said. “I take full responsibility if I did do something wrong. … At the end of the day, I was in a place having a nice dinner and having a nice night, and then I became a victim. And now, it’s all been turned around.

Paulina Gretzky, daughter of NHL legend Wayne Gretzky and fiancée of PGA Tour golfer Dustin Johnson, gave birth to the couple’s first child Monday, according to TMZ Sports. The child was a boy, according to the report.

It’s unclear what the child’s name is, but TMZ reports it starts with a “T,” which follows in something of a family tradition. All of Wayne’s sons’ names begin with the letter T.

Johnson is still off the PGA Tour scene as he’s away from the game to deal with “personal issues.” The eight-time Tour winner took the leave to battle “personal issues,” reportedly failing three drug tests.

In a recent “Sports Illustrated” article, Johnson denied having a cocaine problem. He added that he’s “really grown up” in the last four or five months and is “starting to become the person I want my kids to look up to.”

Tiger Woods made a surprise trip overseas to surprise girlfriend Lindsey Vonn on Monday, watching her win her record 63rd World Cup race, but something was a little off with his appearance. Because the Internet is the Internet, many were all too quick to notice the golfer seemed to be missing a tooth on the slopes in Italy.

The mystery of the day since has been solved, as Tiger’s agent explained a camera was to blame for the dental problem.

“During a crush of photographers as the awards podium at the World Cup event in Italy, a media member with a shoulder-mounted video camera pushed and surged toward the stage, turned and hit Tiger Woods in the mouth,” Mark Steinberg said in an email, per The Associated Press. “Woods’ tooth was knocked out by the incident.”

So, this won’t do anything to help Woods’ disdain for cameras.

Steinberg added he’s unsure when Woods, who returns to competition next week in the Phoenix Open, will have the tooth replaced.

Tiger Woods earned some brownie points with the girlfriend over the weekend.

The golfer traveled to Italy on Monday and surprised Lindsey Vonn at the finish line after she broke the record for women’s Alpine skiing World Cup wins with 63. But that wasn’t the only surprise Woods had in store.

Tiger did his best to stay incognito at the event, sporting a hood, sunglasses and a pretty creepy skeleton mask that was hiding something even creepier. He appeared to be missing a tooth for some unknown reason.

The missing tooth didn’t seem to bother Vonn, who was ecstatic that Tiger made the trip overseas for her competition.

“I didn’t think this could get any better than yesterday with my entire family here, but now with Tiger here, this is unbelievable,” Vonn said, per The Associated Press. “I said, ‘I can’t believe you came.’ And he said, ‘I told you.’ “

Filed under: Golf, NESN Staff, Top Stories]]>http://nesn.com/2015/01/tiger-woods-surprises-lindsey-vonn-hides-missing-front-tooth-photo/feed/001421685580_tigernesnstaffGolfer Robert Allenby Tries To Recall Details Of Attack: ‘I’m Still Shaking’http://nesn.com/2015/01/golfer-robert-allenby-tries-to-recall-details-of-attack-im-still-shaking/
http://nesn.com/2015/01/golfer-robert-allenby-tries-to-recall-details-of-attack-im-still-shaking/#commentsMon, 19 Jan 2015 02:29:55 +0000http://nesn.com/?p=436313]]>HONOLULU — His left eye bruised and swollen shut, Australian golfer Robert Allenby is still shaking over a beating and robbery that left him unable to remember anything except being dumped in a gutter near a park.

“You think … that happens in the movie, not real life,” Allenby told The Associated Press by phone Sunday. “I’m just happy to be alive.”

Allenby posted a photo to his private Facebook account showing a bloodied scrape on his forehead and the bridge of his nose. He said that came from being tossed from the trunk of a car. He said the bruise on his left eye must have come from being beaten in the car.

“I don’t know what they hit me with between the eyeballs, whether a fist or a baseball bat,” he said. “Whatever it was, it hurts.”

Allenby missed the Sony Open cut and then went to Amuse Wine Bar in Honolulu on Friday night with his caddie and a friend from Australia. He had been to the bar earlier in the week and wanted to try the restaurant. Allenby remembers having dinner, a few glasses of red wine and that was about it.

“There was a couple of hours where I was out cold,” Allenby said.

Even after he returned to the bar Saturday with police and watched tape from a surveillance camera that showed him leaving with four people, he doesn’t know who they were or even leaving the bar. Allenby said he has no recollection until getting kicked and prodded by homeless people searching for whatever he had left.

Allenby said his wallet, cash, driver’s license, PGA Tour badge and cellphone were taken. All he had on him in the gutter were two receipts, the American Express card to pay for dinner that he put loosely in his pockets and a watch.

He said the receipt showed that he paid for dinner at 10:06 p.m. Friday, and paid for the wine at 10:48. He said the restaurant closed at 11 p.m.

Allenby said he was checked out by the doctors, but he did not have a blood test to determine if he was drugged.

“I did ask to get a blood test, but they said it was probably out of your system,” he said.

The Honolulu Police Department did not return repeated calls. TV station KHON2 in Honolulu reported Saturday that the matter was being investigated as second-degree robbery.

Allenby said surveillance cameras showed his friend, Anthony Puntoriero, talking to someone in the bar.

“I think that was a decoy, a distraction,” Allenby said. “I went to the bathroom, came out of the bathroom and was told that Anthony had left and was downstairs waiting for me. I go downstairs and then, bang! They knock me out and take me six or seven miles away.”

He said the tape showed one man put a hand on Allenby’s shoulder.

“I seriously don’t even remember meeting these people,” he said. “That’s what is weird. All I know is that I was walking very quietly with them and normal. It didn’t make any sense at all.”

Allenby said a homeless woman told him he was thrown out of the car, but the ordeal wasn’t over just yet. He said several homeless were “kicking me to see if I was alive, and then trying to steal everything else from me.”

Allenby said a man who said he was in the Army came to his aid. Instead of calling an ambulance or the police, Allenby said he wanted to go back to the Kahala Resort at Waialae Country Club because “I just wanted to be in a safe place.”

Allenby said he called daughter Lily, who turned 13 on Saturday, and she was sobbing.

He said his body felt fine except for the swollen left eye and scrapes on his face. He was hoping to make his flight Sunday night to Los Angeles, and then he would decide if he was fit to play the Humana Challenge next week in La Quinta, Calif.

Allenby has 22 wins worldwide, including four on the PGA Tour, the last one in 2001. He has played in the Presidents Cup six times.

“I’m still shaking, still scared,” he said. “It’s just so surreal, just amazing. How does that happen to me? I went from one area where I could have died to another area where I got dumped and homeless people are trying to mug me even more. Sometimes we’re all naive. We only think this happens in the movies.”

Thumbnail photo via Jake Roth/USA TODAY Sports Images

Filed under: Golf, The Associated Press, Top Stories]]>http://nesn.com/2015/01/golfer-robert-allenby-tries-to-recall-details-of-attack-im-still-shaking/feed/00PGA: Sony Open in Hawaii-Second RoundnesnsgalanisPGA: Sony Open in Hawaii-Second RoundGolfer Robert Allenby Says He Was Kidnapped, Beaten And Robbed In Hawaiihttp://nesn.com/2015/01/golfer-robert-allenby-says-he-was-kidnapped-beaten-and-robbed-in-hawaii-photo/
http://nesn.com/2015/01/golfer-robert-allenby-says-he-was-kidnapped-beaten-and-robbed-in-hawaii-photo/#commentsSun, 18 Jan 2015 16:41:33 +0000http://nesn.com/?p=436093]]>Hawaii was anything but paradise for PGA golfer Robert Allenby.

The veteran golfer claims he was abducted Friday after missing the cut at the PGA Tour’s Sony Open event. Allenby was beaten and robbed after being kidnapped from a bar.

Allenby thinks he might have been drugged because he can’t remember what happened in between his time at the bar and then being left on the side of the road. Allenby told Golf Channel that he had his cellphone, cash and credit cards stolen and that he was dumped in a park six miles away from the wine bar he was at with ha friend and his caddie.

“I didn’t think I was going to survive this one,” Allenby told the Australian Associated Press, according to Golf Channel. “I was separated from my friend in the bar after we paid the tab at 10:48 p.m., and he went to the bathroom, and next thing you know, I’m being dumped in a park miles away.”

The golfer was left with some pretty nasty-looking cuts on his face, but he says he’s OK, relatively speaking.

Robert Allenby was beaten up and kidnapped from a wine bar in Hawaii, robbed and dropped off 6 miles away at a park. http://t.co/9vL2vEImv0